Show 1 DEADLY A POWERFUL POISON Well Guarded Secret of Indian i Tribes of Brazil Is Yet Undiscovered 1 USED ON TIPS OF ARROWS I l WILL KILL OX IN 20 MINUTES MONKEY IN TEN TENI I New York April 9 or is I the most powerful sedative In nature tipped with it the tiro lIke arrows arrow used usell by the Indians of the UPI upper r Amazon Amason in their blow guns will kill an ox in twenty minutes s and red a monkey r m in n ten This Is substantially sub the statement maie by Professor James Orton A M ji MIn 1st lu his volume Th lh Andes and the Aina Ania zona The fact that the secret seer t of com compounding compounding I pounding this unique poison polliOn has be bona ben kept so long from its numberless seek S SIs is perhaps per l s the strangest t thing about it says a writer in the National Geographic Magazine The first mention J of It made in the ch civilized world was by b Orellana in his ac account account account count of his descent of the great river nver when he deserted d with a portion of th tb men from the conquering c army of Frau Fran Francisco cisco ciaco Pizarro and sailed down to the At Al Atlantic Atlantic lantic ocean in n 1539 1519 He wrote that hi ht his hist t company wr Wf fired upon uon by the hostile ho UI Indians with minute poisoned 1 arrows This is the sam saim trip when he reported that he was attacked d bv by a band of sav savage savagE savage age female warriors with bows boas and arrows ar arrows arrows rows His report of the poisoned arrows has beer verified by b later travelers although aIth the female warriors warrior from whom tn the mighty river derived its name me proved roved to be a shiftless tribe of savages too lazy lozy to make maice other garments who wore in the place of clothes a sheet of this thin lark kirk with a hole in the middle to slip ever nr the head bead after which it was at the waist and was easily mistaken for fort fors s x t womans dress The same costume is Li Lif till still f worn by them The great gr at and naturalist Baron von yon Humboldt in 1891 18 was tb the first to bring to Europe a i 1 sufficient quantity o 0 othe ot the poison for tor an ap It was found to toc c contain a hitherto unknown alkaloid which was named Prepared in Brazil la is pr lr oared by only on a few tribes of savages on the upper waters of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers where it Is almost tha the only article made for sale saleH I p H is sold mostly mogU to other tribes who use it for killing birds whose who e plumage has hus been In great demand in late years i L Tiong nong the river traders The price of where it Is made is mite ule uniformly Its weight in silver Ilver In tulto where considerable is marketed a 1 1 cup of it costs The gun in which these poisoned ar arrows lows rows are used consists of a straight bam Lo 10 l jo tube from five to six feet long with witha a sight on one end and a mansion to fit the mouth at the other The principle is precisely precise the same as ns asA asa A l sih tube for blowing putty balls I t jt at t the bore bor is to large about an Inch that it requires more breath than untrained lungs cap can supply to make it ft effective Even Sen the most expert can shoot i only a short distance as compared with I firearms arms but their accuracy is wonderful when one considers rs the difficulty of sight sighting I m ing nb a tube fron the position in which U It Is held The rhe arrows consist of a point paint of wood or bone not more than an inch long and andt t ie te size of a toothpick to which is at att anted t a little tuft of the hairy of f the silk cotton tree which is as light lightf r f s II thistledown and will not pack like cotton fibre and so lose the necessary symmetry of form to insure accuracy I The rIh point is then in a thick sot so flO 1 t 1 tion of the poison polson dried and Is ready f r rae lse These Thes arrows owing to their lightness t travel in an almost horizontal line unto until I i the airs resistance stops them when they drop almost straight to the ground Ever since the unique qualities of or uran u ari became known great interest has been taken in and many efforts made to learn the secret of f compounding It Humboldt learned that one plant was always an important ingredient this is the vine taxi fan which however con contains contains contains no trace of strychnine but is very ver It must be used in combination combination combInation tion with other plants to produce the charac ristie effects of In 1872 one additional ingredient was learned by Professor Orton tobacco and the milk of another her plant Is added coagulating Cf It Without this milk of ot another plant it is not the preeminent sedative which the medical world seeks one which produces death Indistinguishable able from sleep in its approach A few weeks before my m return home from Brazil a gentleman left the steamer on its downward trip and came for two weeks rest to lo the tha plantation where I was visiting before taking the sea voyage home He was a professor In a Germ German in university he told us and had spent two years pears ears one thousand miles mills further up the Amazon among the T ma lOa Indians and was now on his way ba b He was thin and sallow and seemed to need rest A Afew Afew Afew few days das before his dr d arture I ques questioned questioned questioned him about the purpose o 0 such an unusual proceeding lIng and he related the following experience The medical faculty of our university has been experimenting for lor several years ears with and believed they were on the eve of finding a of using the tre tremendous tremendous potentiality of this unique poison to good account in treating som nervous diseases when supply becam exhausted After Atter thoroughly thorough satisfying ourselves that some vital element was unknown to I the travelers who believed they had learned the secret and had given us their preparations to test the university de decided decided to send a botanist who was also a physician among the Indians who had made our best samples and who was to remain long enough to secure their care fully guarded secret I was the one chosen and equipped for this service and started immediately Secret Well Guarded It was six months before I could get to work I had to find a village where they the made It learn a little of their in human language and win their dence enough to be received among them without exciting their suspicions of my object In coming for their secret had been often sought by visitors and they were very suspicious When Rhea hen one day It Jt was announced that was to be made I Joined one of the parties sent out to gather the vine which I already knew having ha seen It in some European botanical gardens cultivated as a curi curiosity curiosity curiosity This was cut in suitable lengths len and thrown Into a kettle of water which was kept boiling three days adding more and throwing away the old after it had cooked six hours The third night when the vine had all nIl been used the refuse was thrown away awn and some hoode ceremonies and incantations were performed by the leaders as they marched around the ket tle I think I should say here that too t from first to last three old men directed ev everything and I believe that other mem bers of the tribe knew as little about making as I did They The seemed however to be greatly impressed by the ceremonies The next day da only three people were sent nt to the woods each to gather some someone someone someone one plant I had no difficulty in all these before they were put into I the kettle of boiling wier left after atter the vines ines had been thrown away awa and I was encouraged The following day nearly the whole tribe went out in small parties for the final imal gathering When they came in at midday each brought a bundle of plants I containing many varieties which were thrown down in a pile beside the kettle It would have taken the best botanist a week to Identify them all even if there had not been some of them that were unknown and unnamed by botanists That evening a short ceremony was wal performed in which the great medicine spirit was asked to show them which of these were to be used Then Thea all three began to pick them up one by one Nearly all were thrown away and the few chosen were hastily tossed into the pot and lost sight of in the cloud of evil smelling steam that rose above It So Soman many man kinds of leaves of tropical plants exude a white milky sap that I saw at once that I was in my quest at ot least lo ast in that settlement However I went down the river to another village where was made but stayed only long enough to learn that similar tactics were weso we used for guard guardIng guardIng guarding Ing the tiie secret I r realized that I was beaten My health had suffered by exposure and un unaccustomed unaccustomed unaccustomed accustomed food and I started home after buying for its weight in silver all the poison polson that they had ready for mar market market 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